Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1887-02-21
DEMENTIA'S DRAMA.
HOW SOME PEOPLE PLAY THE FOOL IN
RELIGION.
Th5y Play the Fool Who IL Any Crisis In Life
Try 10 Take Their Gases Out Of the Hands
Of God-ThOss Who Obey the
Technlcalities Of Religion.
Suecui TaegrGm 10 The Register.

IschnlcaliteS Of Religion.
Speciai THegrGm 10 The Register.
BROOKLYN, February 20.-The opening
hymn at the Brooklyn Tabernacle this
morning, sung by the whole congregation,
begins
Safely through another week
God has brought us on our way;
Let us now blessing seek,
Waiting in His courts today"
Professor Henry Eyre Brown, the or
panist, rendered Satz No. l, in c minor,
by Thiele. After running commentary
Oh appropriate passages of Scripture, the
Rev. r. Dewitt Talmage, DID, took for
his text: "And he changed his behavior
before them, and feigned himself mad in
their hands, and scrabbled on the doors Of
the gate, and let his spittle fall down upon
his heard u Sam, XXI, l3. He said:
There is one
SCENE IN THE LIFE OF DAVID
that you may not have pondered. You
have seen him with harp, playing the
Devil out of Saul; with sling, smashing
the skull of Goliath; with sword, hack
ing to pieces the Philistines; with a
sceptre. ruling vast realm; with psalm,
gathering all nations into doXology; but
in my text you have David playing the
fool. He has been anOinted King, yet he
is in exile and passing incOgnitO among
the Gathites. They begin to suspect who
he is, and say: Il wonder if this Is not
the warrior, King David? 1t looks like
him. Is not this the man about whom
they used to make poetry, and about
whom they composed dance, so that the
maidens of the city, reeling now on one
foot, and now on the other, used TO
sing: Saul has slain his thousands, but
David has slain his tens of thousands?
Yes, it is very much like David. 1t must
he David. 1t is David" David, to escape
their hands pretends TO be dcmentcd. lie
said within himself: 'lf | act crazily then
of course these people will not inIure me.
No one would be so much of Il coward rs
to assault madman." So, one day,whllc
these Gathtes are watching David with
increased suspicion, they see him standing
by the door running his hands meaning
leSsly up and down the epanels-scrabbling
on the door aS though he would climb up,
his mouth wide open, crawling like an ln-
FAINT. suppose the boys OF the streets
threw missiles ut him; but the sober peO-
pie of the town said This is not fair.
DO you not see that he has lost his reason?
DO not touch this mailman. Hands of
hands off, SO David escaped; but what
an exhibition he made of himself before all
the ages There was 4 majesty in
KING LEAR's MADNESS
after Regan and GOneril, his daughters, had
persuaded him to Danish their sister Coz
della, and all the friends of the drama have
been thrilled with that spectacular. The
craziness of Meg Merrilies WAS weird and
imposing, and the most telling passage i'll
Walter SCOTS Guy Mannering." There
was Il fascination about the insanity OF
Alexander Cruden, who made the best con
cordance of the Bible that the world eveI
saw-made it between the madhOuSes.
Some time ago, while ! WAS visiting the
insane asylum on Blackwell's Island, q
demented woman came up to me and said
III most tragic style:
GOD moves in mysterious way,
His wonders to perform;
He plants His footsteps in the sea,
And rides upon the storm.
But there was nothing grand, nothing
weird, nothing majestic, nothing sublime
about this stimulation on the part of David.
Instead OF trusting in the Lord, as he had
on other occasions, he gathers before him
vast audience of all generations that were
to come, and standing on that conspicu-
Gus stage of history, in the presence of all
the ages, he impersOnates the slaverlng
idiot "And he changed his behavior he
fore them, and fcigned himself mad in
their hands, and scrabbled at the door OF
the gates, and let his spittle fall upon his
beard"
Taking the behavior of David as n sug,
gestiOn, | wish to tell you how many OF
the wise and the brave, and the regal
sometimes
PLAY THE FOOL.
Aud in the first place, remark, that
those men rs badly play the fool as this
man OF the text who in any crisis of life
take their case out of the hand OF God.
David in this case, acted rs though there
were no God to lift him out of the predlca'
ment. What a contrast between his be-
bavior, when this brave little man stood
up in front of the giant ten feet i'll height,
and looking into his face, said: Thou
comest to rue with a sword, and with q
| ,uli oil a.. hrf IA
| thee in the name Ofthe Lord Of Hosts, the
| God of the armies of Israel, whom thou
hast defied- This day will the Lord de
| liver thee into mine hand, and will
Smitc thee, and take thine head from thee,
and | will give the CarCaSses of the hosts O
the rhlistines this day unto the fowls al
the air, and to the wild beasts of the earth,
that all the earth may know that there is
a God in Israel"-betweeD that time and
this time, when lie debaSed himself, and
hedraggled his manhood, aud affected in
sanity in order that he might escape from
the grip of the GathlteS In the one case
he played the hero. In the other place h,
PLAYED the fool. So does every man who, in
the great crises of life, takes his
case out of the hand Of God. The
| lie Oi the most llSiShlu'dut ul'ih III 'hE
house is too vast for any human manage
ment. Ole time, returning from the
West, very easily got on the locomotive
while passing over the plains, and talked
with the engineer; hut coming on toward
the Allegbany mountains, thought
would like to sit on the locomotive ~ II
came down from the mountains midst that
most wonderful scenery on this continent.
asked the engineer il | might ride, but
he courteously denied me, for there the
grade is so steep, and SO winding and 81
perlous, that he must not have anyone on
the locomotive who may divert his atten'
tiOn when eye, and hand, and foot, and
brain must he concentrated, ready for the
most sudden emergency. Well, my friends,
life is so steep, and 80 perilous, and so ex'
posed TO sudden surprises, that none but
the Lord Almighty can guide and engineer
it, and our disasters come from the fact
that We want to get up and help the Lori
to manage the train.
KEEP OFF THE ENGINE!
Re willing TO let God pull you where b.
wants to pull you. You have no righ'
for an instant to surrender your SAINT!
and manhood rs David surrendered his